February 2017 I-129F Filers

[TriloByte 1,818]

5 hours ago, Ana&Matt said:

We received 2 letters today from USCIS!! One with the approval and one saying we are on processing hold for security checks, one was dated Friday 21st and the approval Monday 24th... I know how you feel, we waiting 177 days! Just hold in there, i think they are working in the forgoten ones... I'm sure your NOA2 will come soon

@Lovemycroatianman did you see this? This indicates that the USCIS letter you got may be nothing more than an excuse to buy more time. I've said this before and I will say it again, if USCIS is caught in just one lie, then nothing they say can be trusted. They told me at least ten lies when I was dealing with them. One day they say they are processing Feb files and then the next day they switch it back to Jan files. They flip, they flop, they lie, they lose evidence and paperwork, there are posts from people who worked there saying their job sucks and people cheat on each other in the office, etc. My impression is that USCIS is the worst of the worst. It's possible that your NOA2 is right around the corner.

Edited July 28, 2017 by TriloByte

[elranchero20 33]

Good morning everyone:

 

I am on day 36 of waiting after submitting an RFE response. I would like to ask for some advice my fiancées contract in Taiwan ends in the beginning of October and she is planning to go back to the Phillipines for one month. Would it just be better to transfer case to the Phillipines right off the bat and avoid wait and work done by Taiwan embassy.  I think it may take up to two months for case to be transferrred and schedule interview. I will call USCIS again today to speak to Tier 2. Any advice is greatly appreciated... 😅

[cherryblossoms916 216]

36 minutes ago, elranchero20 said:

Good morning everyone:

 

I am on day 36 of waiting after submitting an RFE response. I would like to ask for some advice my fiancées contract in Taiwan ends in the beginning of October and she is planning to go back to the Phillipines for one month. Would it just be better to transfer case to the Phillipines right off the bat and avoid wait and work done by Taiwan embassy.  I think it may take up to two months for case to be transferrred and schedule interview. I will call USCIS again today to speak to Tier 2. Any advice is greatly appreciated... 😅

Hi! We have the same issue. We submitted our rfe response last July 5. Till now we don't have any response yet. What's your rfe and what is the status of your USCIS tracker?

[elranchero20 33]

21 minutes ago, cherryblossoms916 said:

Hi! We have the same issue. We submitted our rfe response last July 5. Till now we don't have any response yet. What's your rfe and what is the status of your USCIS tracker?

 

21 minutes ago, cherryblossoms916 said:

Hi! We have the same issue. We submitted our rfe response last July 5. Till now we don't have any response yet. What's your rfe and what is the status of your USCIS tracker?

I needed to show proof of relationship and circumstances of meeting as well as proof that website we met on is not international marriage broker and fiancée needs to submit G325a.  I will call USCIS later today but this is getting ridiculous two weeks ago when I called paperwork was still sitting on clerks desk...

[PB&FM 30]

1 hour ago, elranchero20 said:

Good morning everyone:

 

I am on day 36 of waiting after submitting an RFE response. I would like to ask for some advice my fiancées contract in Taiwan ends in the beginning of October and she is planning to go back to the Phillipines for one month. Would it just be better to transfer case to the Phillipines right off the bat and avoid wait and work done by Taiwan embassy.  I think it may take up to two months for case to be transferrred and schedule interview. I will call USCIS again today to speak to Tier 2. Any advice is greatly appreciated... 😅

         hi😊good morning as far as i know she will go back to the origin country!!like on my case im at rome,italy now.im working at rome almost 13 yrs..,but when my papers got approved im going back to the Phillipines as soon as possible.,im a march fillers,patiently waiting......before we file our I-129f my fiance ask the immigration officers.,and they said this...

[LorRie 37]

For the February filers who have gotten the medical (vaccines) completed, does your form have a small print that says 'expiration date' on the top right corner? I am confused - is the validity of this vaccine report only for 3 months? Mine has a small print that says EXPIRATION DATE: 9/30/2017.
My medical exam was on 6/26/2017, and by the time I finished the last round of vaccines + received the medical report packet, it was already 7/25/2017. The earliest interview date available at my consulate as of now is 8/30/2017, which means if all goes well, it will be well into September 2017 before I am allowed to travel to the US to reunited with my fiance.

Does this mean when I arrive in the US I will have to get married ASAP (I don't even get the 90 days as I was given??!) and do the AOS - BEFORE the vaccine report expires on September 30, 2017? 

Can someone with a little experience at this stage of the process (or a little later in the process) explain this to me? 

(A side note: I know we aren't allowed to open the medical reports until someone does it at the POE/airport but my vaccine report was also included inside on an unsealed envelope. I have another 2 envelopes that are sealed and says do not open. Is this also the case for everyone else with their vaccine report?) 

[elranchero20 33]

Hello everyone I just spoke with tier 2 officer she will submit an inquiry to California Service Center as to status of case. I shall hear something back in about two weeks. I hope USCIS moves paperwork from whoopee cushion to their desk lol

[doggieandsam 765]

5 hours ago, Lovemycroatianman said:

Hmmm I'll check....oh...and idk why I said strong...lol...maybe cause I was strongly mad ...lmao

Lol!!!

[doggieandsam 765]

2 hours ago, LorRie said:

For the February filers who have gotten the medical (vaccines) completed, does your form have a small print that says 'expiration date' on the top right corner? I am confused - is the validity of this vaccine report only for 3 months? Mine has a small print that says EXPIRATION DATE: 9/30/2017.
My medical exam was on 6/26/2017, and by the time I finished the last round of vaccines + received the medical report packet, it was already 7/25/2017. The earliest interview date available at my consulate as of now is 8/30/2017, which means if all goes well, it will be well into September 2017 before I am allowed to travel to the US to reunited with my fiance.

Does this mean when I arrive in the US I will have to get married ASAP (I don't even get the 90 days as I was given??!) and do the AOS - BEFORE the vaccine report expires on September 30, 2017? 

Can someone with a little experience at this stage of the process (or a little later in the process) explain this to me? 

(A side note: I know we aren't allowed to open the medical reports until someone does it at the POE/airport but my vaccine report was also included inside on an unsealed envelope. I have another 2 envelopes that are sealed and says do not open. Is this also the case for everyone else with their vaccine report?) 

hi, i never noticed this before and i just checked mine and yes, mine does have the same line on the upper right hand corner in small text that says EXPIRATION DATE: 9/30/2017. no need to worry i think this is the expiration date of the form and not the vaccines.

 

i have 2 unsealed envelopes with me too - one containing the medical and all the lab tests results (and i bet the vaccination record too) and the other the xray results. then i have a loose paper that was given to me by the nurse which is a copy of my vaccination record (same one that your describe with the expiration date text above).

Edited July 28, 2017 by iamdegie

[doggieandsam 765]

5 hours ago, Lovemycroatianman said:

I checked that page...section 3 ? Only thing I did was check the three no's since the convictions and waivers didnt apply...

hmm okay, at least then we know its not those questions.

[doggieandsam 765]

4 hours ago, elranchero20 said:

Good morning everyone:

 

I am on day 36 of waiting after submitting an RFE response. I would like to ask for some advice my fiancées contract in Taiwan ends in the beginning of October and she is planning to go back to the Phillipines for one month. Would it just be better to transfer case to the Phillipines right off the bat and avoid wait and work done by Taiwan embassy.  I think it may take up to two months for case to be transferrred and schedule interview. I will call USCIS again today to speak to Tier 2. Any advice is greatly appreciated... 😅

i think and others can correct me if im wrong, you can only request a transfer at nvc stage (assuming you catch it there early enough when they haven't dispatched it to taiwan yet). otherwise, you need to wait until the case reaches taiwan and then you need to ask taiwan to do the transfer to manila. you can maybe seek advise from VJ user @geowrian as he went through an embassy transfer and will be better able to advise.

[belle4310 72]

I am waiting on the NVC to say they received my case. this process put your heart on the edge like every single step. smh.

[geowrian 22,337]

5 hours ago, elranchero20 said:

Good morning everyone:

 

I am on day 36 of waiting after submitting an RFE response. I would like to ask for some advice my fiancées contract in Taiwan ends in the beginning of October and she is planning to go back to the Phillipines for one month. Would it just be better to transfer case to the Phillipines right off the bat and avoid wait and work done by Taiwan embassy.  I think it may take up to two months for case to be transferrred and schedule interview. I will call USCIS again today to speak to Tier 2. Any advice is greatly appreciated... 😅

1 hour ago, iamdegie said:

i think and others can correct me if im wrong, you can only request a transfer at nvc stage (assuming you catch it there early enough when they haven't dispatched it to taiwan yet). otherwise, you need to wait until the case reaches taiwan and then you need to ask taiwan to do the transfer to manila. you can maybe seek advise from VJ user @geowrian as he went through an embassy transfer and will be better able to advise.

You can check out my signature for my timeline. In short, I was unable to transfer at NVC. Others have been successful at doing so, but they either had mistakes at the NVC stage (they recorded the wrong embassy) or no embassy recorded on their NOA2. But if you want to transfer, I would still encourage you to try while the case is still at NVC. It's tough because you just have to keep calling every day after the NOA2 to see when the case arrives there, then try to get a hold of somebody who knows what they're doing. They will likely say the request needs to be submitted in writing (email or askNVC website request), which usually takes several weeks or longer to hear back...which is usually well longer than NVC holds the I-129F before sending it to the embassy.

 

If the case is sent to the embassy, then you need to 1) wait for the case to arrive, then 2) make a request to the desired embassy to transfer the embassy there. In your case, that means contacting USEM and asking them to transfer the case from Taiwan. In my case, it took about a week for Riyadh to get the case after it was sent via DHL, several days for USEM to recognize the transfer request (via email), a couple more days for USEM to make/approve the transfer request, then about a week for Riyadh to physically transfer the case to USEM.

 

That said, my case is a little different. My fiancee was exiting Riyadh at the end of her work contract, so she was actually changing her residence from KSA to PI. During the interview, she was asked at least twice (pre-interview and actual interview with the CO) if she was going to return to KSA. The rule of thumb is that you need legal residence wherever you are going to interview...so I'm not 100% certain a one month visit would be sufficient. Furthermore, if things go well, they will take her passport while they complete processing and issue the visa. Depending on the exact timings, that may not fit within the one month timeframe stated. I honestly don't know if it will be an issue or not....I just wanted to raise potential concerns so you aren't surprised.

 

As for calling USCIS, I called USCIS + NVC 18 times over the couple weeks (twice with a Tier 2 / supervisor) between my NOA2 and when the case was shipped to Riyadh. I would say I got about 8 very distinct responses...some in direct conflict with each other ("Yeah, just call back when the I-129F arrives and we will have no problem changing the embassy at that time."... "No sir, there is no way we can change the embassy at NVC before it leaves. It's not possible in our system.").

 

USEM is definitely much faster than Taiwan from everything I've read. But if you are limited to a one month period, that would likely be cutting it extremely close. And you cannot even schedule the interview until the case is transferred (we had to contact USEM to transfer her ustraveldocs.com account from KSA to PI as well since she previously applied for a tourist visa).

 

Good luck! Please update and feel free to tag me with how it goes.

Edited July 28, 2017 by geowrian

[Lovemycroatianman 278]

3 hours ago, elranchero20 said:

Hello everyone I just spoke with tier 2 officer she will submit an inquiry to California Service Center as to status of case. I shall hear something back in about two weeks. I hope USCIS moves paperwork from whoopee cushion to their desk lol

I hope you get a hood response...I did that too...then they hit me with the "processing hold due to pending security checks" The end of June I was still "within processing time" as per my congresswomans inquiry...I am praying ans hoping ...that when I did the over the phone nquiry one the 10th that maybe someone barely started the security checks after that and it just wasn't done but since they had a target date of 25th they had to give me an answer of some kind that puts me in limbo hell....luckily thru intense research I found out what the ombudsman recommends for that foia inquiry....mines already been sent and my fiance is signing and emailing his to me right now....hope you get the good response ....

[Bannonmh194 53]

3 hours ago, elranchero20 said:

Hello everyone I just spoke with tier 2 officer she will submit an inquiry to California Service Center as to status of case. I shall hear something back in about two weeks. I hope USCIS moves paperwork from whoopee cushion to their desk lol

What was your RFE regarding ? I'm in the same boat. They received mine June 6th for not checking the box that I did not commit a crime and I am still waiting for NOA2